Various types of large storage-capacity memory cards have become popular and used in many kinds of portable digital apparatus, such as digital cameras, portable music players, portable data terminals, etc. In order to promote such memory cards in more application fields, it is requested that these memory cards are equipped with a function of wireless communication.
Responding to such requests, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2001-195553, for example, proposes a structure of adding a wireless interface function to an SD memory card.
FIG. 23 shows the structure as disclosed in the above Publication, while FIG. 24 shows its perspective view.
SD memory card 1410 has wireless control section 1430, in addition to memory section which performs the essential function as memory medium. Antenna module 1420 containing antenna 1450 is connected to wireless control section 1430 through connection section 1440. Flash memory 1460, which is the flash ROM for SD memory card 1410, stores also a driver program for operating the function of wireless communication. When SD memory card 1410 coupled with antenna module 1420 is attached to a portable digital apparatus or the like electronic equipment, it can communicate with the external apparatus through the wireless communicating function contained in SD memory card 1410, without the need of making any specific operation for that.
Besides the above, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-91709 discloses another structure of adding a wireless interface function to an SD memory card.
The earlier-described Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2001-195553 discloses a structure of adding an antenna module to an SD memory card. This, however, is a structure in which an antenna module is added to an SD memory card at the end part. Namely, the antenna module is not housed within the SD memory card, but it is an attachment affixed from the outside to an SD memory card. As the result, the overall outer dimensions increase by the volume of the antenna module. This means that a host apparatus has to provide an extra space identical to the antenna module, if it uses such an SD memory card. This is an adverse factor against the ongoing downsizing efforts in the electronics industry. In order to evade the drawback, the Publication proposes other structure too; that is, SD memory card houses an antenna along the edge at a side which has no connection terminal. The proposed structure may work for the exemplified 2.4 GHz band, but the space available there may not be sufficient for the antenna length required for 13.56 MHz band, etc.
The present invention aims to solve the problems which arise when incorporating an antenna module in an SD memory card, etc. In other words, the present invention aims to implement a compact profile after the antenna function for wireless communication is incorporated; so that it can be housed in an SD memory card, for example, with which the dimensional specifications have been established. Thus a semiconductor memory module having built-in antenna in accordance with the present invention is provided with the functions of both the connection by contact and the non-contact communication.